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Beer tour FridayLiving in San Diego I have access to many tasting rooms around the county.
So Friday I took my Ballast Point growler with me to work(I rode my motorcycle so it was in the back pack). Stopped over at the San Diego tasting room, had a few tasters and filled the growler with "Victory at Sea", possibly my all time favorite porter. We had plans to head up to the mountains to hang out with friends at their cabin and they both like porters too.
Earlier in the day a good friend of mine who has 2 touring companies, one a beer tour company and the other for wine tours posted on facebook that he had a cancellation and thus only had 2 people scheduled for his afternoon tour. Not wanting his only 2 customers to be bored in the trip he asked for some peoples to volunteer to help fill the truck at his cost.
Naturally me and a Buddy decided to cut work short and help our friend out. He has a good thing going, 3 Breweries, tastings and food included.
Around 3:30 we head out of Carlsbad in the back of his Pinzgauer that is modified to seat up to 12 people in the back. We introduced ourselves to a nice couple from Iowa that were out in California on vacation, he is a homebrewer and enjoys good craft beer and was excited to try out beer he cannot get back home.
It was a bit overcast as we headed down the coast before turning inland toward our first stop:
About 15 min later we arrived at Iron Fist in Vista:
He has a pretty good deal going, we each get 5 tastings of anything on the menu using his custom 5oz Taster glasses. There was a gourmet food truck parked outside and we enjoyed some hush puppies and pulled pork fries as we sampled beer. 25oz of 9-12% beer later we shoved off and headed to Mother Earth Brewing which is only 5 min down the road from Iron Fist, still in Vista. Mother Earth is another home brew mart that turned into a nano-brewery, and they do not bottle, so you will have to visit in person to try something. We each got 3 tastings here.
I took a quick min to snap a few shots of the ride before it started getting too dark.
Last Stop, Lost Abbey / Port Brewing
We were dropped off as he headed out to pick us up dinner. We all decided upon BBQ Tri-Tip Sandwiches from Phil's BBQ.
This time we were given a wristband with 5 tags on it, plus our first tasting was on the house from Lost Abbey. After my 3rd tasting I heard one of the bar tenders talking about something called "Track #2". It is part of a special drink on site beer program Lost Abbey is doing this year. Track #2 is 60% Bourbon Barrel Aged Angels Share, and the rest of the Blend includes ale with Peaches and Sour Cherries. One 12.7oz bottle is $16.00, and you have to drink it onsite and are only given the bottle after you finish your drinks, you are also put in a drawing to be eligible to purchase all the "Track" beers after they are all released. I figured it would be a good way to end the night and a nice treat for our new friends from Iowa, so I bought a bottle and requested 4 glasses. It was fantastic, hints of port on the nose, hard to describe but I would def buy another bottle and I hope I have a chance at buying the entire series.
I was mostly irritated that they rinsed the bottle before they gave it back to me, I was hoping to savor some more of the smell out of the bottle.
And finally a blurry shot of my buddy Matt sleeping on the spare tire as we cruised the freeway home.
If you ever find yourself in San Diego and want to have a fun time visiting some breweries check out Scavengers Beer Tours!
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